I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composition for inhibiting flowering of plants and to a composition for prolonging the duration of flowering of plants.
II. Description of the Related Art
Most of the agricultural and horticultural plants form flower buds and then flower depending on the change of season, especially change in the length of the daytime. To inhibit the formation of flower buds or flowering is an important agricultural technique. No technique has been established to completely inhibit the floral bud initiation by using plant hormones. Only one commercially used technique is to inhibit floral bud initiation by artificially controlling the length of the daytime wherein the plants (for example, chrysanthemum) are cultured in an equipment.
However, to artificially control the length of daytime while culturing the plants in an equipment is costly and the scale of the culturing is limited.
Thus, if the floral bud initiation of plants in the fields can be inhibited by applying an agricultural chemical to the plants, it is economical and advantageous.
To attain this object, a number of compounds have been tested for their activities to inhibit the flowering of plants. A number of reports have been published concerning the effectiveness of synthetic racemic abscisic acid for this purpose (Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. 39, 175 (1988)). However, the results have been negative and no useful technique has been established, which employs synthetic racemic abscisic acid.